This week marked the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We should all take pause that on two days sixty years ago, man used atomic weapons on his fellow man. It is important to remember, but Base10 will not engage in the sort of historical revisionism that vilifies the west for using nukes.

To engage in that debate would require one to weight the value of US soldiers's lives with the lives of Japanese soldiers and civilians. This type of calculus is simply unacceptable.

(Indeed, Base10's father served in Europe. Had the war in Japan dragged on for an additional year or more as some experts predicted, would he have been redeployed to the Pacific? Would Base10 be alive today?)

The atomic bombs caused devastation, but the Japanese at that point were unwilling to surrender. Remember we didn't start that war. We didn't decimate the population of Nanking. And we didn't kill thousands of POW's. I do not wish to denigrate the memory of the civilian victims of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. I do wish to point out that the Japanese government--their government-- was ultimately the cause of their suffering.

It is striking today that events in North Korea and Iran have brought us closer to nuclear destruction than we were the day before. Iran has unsealed its nuclear facilities and will resume uranium enrichment activity while talks with North Korea have once again stalled.

Where is the worldwide anger? Where is the worldwide willingness to forcibly disarm Iran and North Korea? War would put you soldiers at risk? A nuclear NK and a nuclear Iran would be much greater risks. It seems to me the anti-nuke rhetoric is only aimed at the United States. When will the rest of the world, particularly the Euro anti-nuke nitwits realize that it is not enough to trash the US. It is your fight too. If you believe in ending nuclear terror, pressure you nations to fight for it. Indeed, you have to be willing to fight for it.

- posted by Base10 @ 1:03 PM